ACCC must act on fuel price fixing: govt

The federal treasurer says the competition watchdog should let the government know if trade laws need strengthening to prevent petrol prices being fixed.

17 August 2006

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello says the competition watchdog should let the government know if it believes trade laws need strengthening to prevent petrol prices being fixed.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel has told a Senate petrol inquiry that price gouging and profiteering are not defined in the law and do not constitute illegal conduct under the Trade Practices Act.

Asked if Mr Samuel's comments indicated a case of "open slather for motorists", Mr Costello said any form of price fixing was illegal.

"Well if there's any evidence of price fixing, if it looks as if anybody has basically got together with one of his competitors and said we'll raise the price ... well any fixing in a market is illegal," he told Macquarie Radio.

He said Mr Samuel should let the government know if trade laws needed to be strengthened.

"Well, can I tell you Graeme Samuel has a well-funded organisation ... and if he believes that there's an area where there's a defect in the law he should come to us and recommend it to us," Mr Costello said.

He said there had been a case in which some service stations in Ballarat had been fined up to $20 million for price fixing.

The treasurer's comments follow the unveiling this week by Prime Minister John Howard of the government's energy plan, under which motorists would receive $2,000 towards the cost of converting their cars to run on LPG.

Drive Comments

0 Comments

Facebook Comments

Share

Width

Profile

Rim

The size of your tyre is located on the sidewall of your tyre.It will be similar to the sample below.